Best Rock In The Park

Day 60: There are three known species of "matchstick" lichens in the Pacific Northwest, two of which can be found in Mount Rainier National Park. Pilophorus clavatus ("tapered matchstick," left) and Pilophorus acicularis ("devil's matchstick," right) are easy to miss because at their tallest, their thready stems do not rise more than an inch in height. Clavatus' apothecia (fruiting bodies) are elongated and club-like, supported by reddish podetia (stalks), while the knobby, round heads of acicularis cap pale green podetia. They are both pioneer species, occurring on freshly broken rock ("freshly" being defined here as a measure of decades rather than weeks). Not far from the Administration Building at Longmire, the two matchsticks can be found together on what I think of as "the best rock in the Park."